Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Perhaps the most famous piece of literature associated with Halloween is Washington Irving’s short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It tells the tale of Ichabod Crane, a teacher, that courts the daughter of a wealthy farmer. Following a party at her home, Ichabod is pursued by the ghost of a Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary War who was decapitated by cannonball. The ghost was known as the Headless Horseman.

The story, first published in 1920, was made into movies by both Disney, in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and director Tim Burton, in Sleepy Hollow (1999).